


beyond this place of wrath and tears

by pawn_vs_player



Series: it takes and it takes and it takes (aka: Adrian writes fic to cope with Infinity War) [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family, Gamora (Marvel) Dies, Gen, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 21:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17332586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: "I love you," he says, and lets go.





	beyond this place of wrath and tears

**Author's Note:**

> title from _Invictus_ by William Ernest Henley.

She is a little girl, hungry and confused and biting back her fear. He hands her a knife and speaks of balance.

He shields her eyes, but her kind have sharp ears. She hears the gunfire. She hears the screams and the silence. She hears the thuds of falling bodies.

Once, when her father was still there, he told her to live. No matter what, no matter the circumstances, she had to live. If she lived, eventually any shadow that covered her would pass and she would see the light again.

She curls her small fingers around the knife. He gave her a weapon. He protected her from the gunfire.

She does not trust him. She does not like him. But he has already proven himself to be concerned with her wellbeing, which is more than most others have done.

She goes with him because she is a child, longing for a family and desperate to survive.

(She doesn't love him. She never loved him. He didn't deserve it.)

-

He says the Stone requires a sacrifice. She laughs and laughs and laughs, breathless and hysterical. And then she realizes that he is not looking at her with anger.

She feels, suddenly, very cold.

She's going to die, and it won't be in defiance of him. He's going to kill her for his plan because he does not even understand how broken he is.

There is nowhere for her to run, nothing for her to fight with. This is how it's going to end. Like this, alone with the most successful mass-murderer in the history of the universe and an uncaring ghost, nothing to do but wait for it to come.

He picks her up, grip familiar around her neck. She has no weapons, no way of winning, but she fights anyway. She was never going to die quietly, not to him.

"I love you," he says, her feet swinging over the drop. "I love you."

She cannot speak, his fingers squeezing her throat shut, but she looks him in the eye and thinks:  _You are a very bad liar._

He lets go. She falls.

She hits.

-

(Her body lays on the stone. Nothing happens. Thanos screams and rages, tears the cliff apart in his fury, but he does not get the stone.)

(He doesn't love her. He never loved her. He never could.)

(She wins.)


End file.
